The World-Wide Web (the Web) is a collection of formatted hypertext pages located on numerous computers around the world that are logically connected by the Internet. The Web has become a valuable resource for information relating to almost any subject, including business, travel, education, and entertainment, to name just a few. Many Web sites include content relating to popular television programs, specific episodes, and their characters, for example. Further evidence of the Web's commercial importance is the fact that Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) have begun to appear on billboards, in newspaper and other print advertisements, and in the credits of TV programs and movies.
Traditionally, individuals have accessed Internet content from personal computers (PCs) by way of programs, such as Web browsers, that provide a graphical user interface to the Web. However, the introduction of Internet terminals, such as those pioneered by WebTV Networks, Inc., the assignee of the present invention, has made the Web accessible to a larger segment of the population by providing access to the Web without the use of a personal computer. These Internet terminals (also commonly referred to as set-top boxes) provide individuals with access to Web pages using an ordinary television (TV) set as a display and a remote control or wireless keyboard for user input.
Currently, while Internet content may be identified by a TV program or commercial, in order to view such Internet content, the TV viewer must manually key the URL into his/her Web browser or Internet terminal. It would be desirable to provide a more convenient mechanism for integrating broadcast television programming with the Web to facilitate the retrieval and viewing of Internet content concurrently with the television broadcast or at a later time at the option of the viewer. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a mechanism for notifying the viewer of the existence of Internet content relating to and/or associated with the current TV program or commercial, for example, and allowing such content to be automatically displayed upon request by the viewer.